Course Syllabus

We will read work that represents a number of critical approaches developed within literary theory in the past twenty-five years, including reader response, post-structuralism, feminism, semiotics, eco-criticism and cultural criticism. The class conveys some of the influential currents of thought in literary theory that inform contemporary work in the profession. We will combine critical and fictional readings in order to investigate the practical ramifications of different theoretical methods.

Required texts:

• David Richter, ed., The Critical Tradition
• Brian Rotman, Signifying Nothing: the Semiotics of Zero
• Terry Eagleton, Literary Theory

Reading schedule:

All entries listed by author's last name are from the Richter anthology. Pieces listed by author and title are xeroxed handouts.

• Week 1: Introduction to Post-War Criticism
  • What was Formalism?
  • Eagleton, chapters 1-2
• Weeks 2-4: Author/Text/Reader
  • Borges, "Borges and I"; Cortazar, "Blow-Up"
  • Foucault, Barthes, Iser
• Weeks 5-7: Simple and Odd: Reading Poe
  • Poe, "The Purloined Letter"
  • Lacan, Derrida
• Weeks 8-10: Feminism
  • Baym, Kolodny, Gilbert and Gubar, Cixous
• Week 11: Eco-Criticism
  • Bateson, "Style, Grace and Information in Primitive Art"
  • Kroeber, "Biology of Mind and the Future of Criticism"
• Weeks 12-13: Cultural Criticism
  • Said, Jameson
  • Chambers, "Cities without Maps"
  • Kuberski, "Unconscious Cities"
• Weeks 14-15: Semiotics
  • Rotman, Signifying Nothing

Back to Courses

Back to Home